NitK: Amazon’s 30-Minutes-or-Less Delivery Drones

Just in time for the Holidays!! Just kidding… Probably not until 2015. Amazon just released video of a recent test flight with their Amazon Prime Air Drones. According to Amazon:

The goal of this new delivery system is to get packages into customers’ hands in 30 minutes or less using unmanned aerial vehicles. Putting Prime Air into commercial use will take some number of years as we advance the technology and wait for the necessary FAA rules and regulations.

Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s Founder & CEO, announced on 60 Minutes that the octocopters can carry up to five pounds, which according to Bezos is 86% of the orders Amazon receives. Prime Air will only be able to deliver within 10 mile radius of a fulfillment center, but that’s pretty significant in urban areas. The drones are completely autonomous and operate on battery power. Check out the interview, it’s pretty interesting:

How will this work in an urban setting, where flight paths are infinitely more complicated than in the wide open fields pictured in the video, and not everyone has a back yard for conveniently just dropping off parcels without checking whether they fall into the right hands?

Those are questions to be answered by the FAA. If the drones have sensors and radar, your concerns are easily resolved. Google already has cars that can drive and park by themselves in crowded roadways. If you can’t be outside to receive the package, then you probably just don’t use the service.

DRSNova

They can have as many sensors as they want, what if one happens to critically malfunction over a crowded sidewalk? Or over a highway? If this was an essential service (say, urgent medication), i would be happy to weigh safety against need, but to me this is nothing more than frivolous luxury.

Yeah.. I live in a New York City apartment building. Unless the drone has a little finger attachment that can ring the door buzzer thing for my apartment, wait for me to buzz it in, open the door, then hover upstairs to my door and hand me my crap, this won’t work.

Luna93

The future is amazing. I could order a dildo online and have it arrive within 30 minutes.

I think this will be rarely used because the upcharge will be significant. It is a necessary experiment in Amazon’s line of work, however. The final decision on how “ridiculous” or “pointless” this is will be made by the dollar votes.

Businesses will probably use this more than residential. I can imagine needing emergency office supplies, computer hardware, and specialty items that brick and mortar stores don’t carry.

DRSNova

The Question to me is: Is it both faster and cheaper than a courier? And even then, a courier can talk, walk into a building, and problem-solve in general.

So far, this is less of a revolutionary idea, but rather “Hey, those toys are popular right now. Let’s do something with it to look trendy and cool.”.

I think you are missing the point that a drone helo can take a straight line path to a destination. Of course it will be faster than a courier. Cheaper will depend on the popularity, and some companies will pay the price even if it is unreasonable. Think of someone working on an antenna tower or roof somewhere. It can take hours to get down and up a tower manually.

DRSNova

Neither is the straight line neccessarily an option in an urban environment (They can’t climb to infinite heights), nor are those drones terribly fast. By neccessity. Would you like these things whizzing over your head on a sidewalk at 50 mph? I hardly think so. They are usually limited to walking speeds in exactly these situations.

Don’t know what rooftops and towers you are thinking of, there’s usually a thing called “elevator” to help with those hours and hours of climbing. And i fail to see how the odd delivery to an otherwise really difficult location is any argument for a business model. How many people on how many antenna towers are there that need a stapler, stat.

There are towers all over the place, and you really need to open your eyes. I get the impression you just like arguing without listening. Next time you are on Youtube, watch some videos about tower/antenna workers and you will see what I mean.

I listed several examples after 5 seconds of thought and they are all viable despite your narrow minded view of business. If people will pay for it, then someone will offer it. Bottled water is a perfect example.

Furthermore, I don’t believe that any city has a 10 mile stretch of skyscrapers. Therefore, the straight line path will be available quite frequently, and even when it isn’t, the drone will avoid traffic and stops. It’s not as complicated as you are trying to make it.